The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-11-16
Eden i'm South Carolina.

In reply to the speculations of DR..
Warren, who would look for the cradle
of the human race at the north pole,
Bishop j. G. Keener writes to the
Southern Christian Advocate to put in
claim for Charleston, South Carolina,
as covering the site of the original
Garden of Paradise, the Eden of Gen
esis. 1t is to be regretted that Colum-
bus was not able to refer for confirma-
ton to this article in his announcement
to his sovereign lord and lady of his
discovery of the ascent to the long lost
Garden of Eden. To be sure, either
Columbus or Bishop Keener was few
hundred miles out of the way, but on
the main point of fixing Eden in the
western world they were at one. For
the specific location of the Garden
of Paradise on the coast between the
Santee and Savannah, with its several
rivers and inlets, between the thirteth
and fortieth parallels of latitude"
Bishop Keener is able to present a
number of arguments. When the ark
rose on the flood and drifted away with
Noah and his family only a limited
number of animals, representing the
different orders and species, were pre-
served in its hold What became of
the rest, the unfortunate creatures who
were necessarily left behind, madlv
rushing perhaps at the ark only to be
crushed in the press or to sink beneath
the waves? Hitherto no one has been
able to mark their burial-place. But
now bright light is thrown upon the
spot where they fell. In and near
the Cooper and Ashley rivers, as is
well known" says Bishop Keener.
there is a vast collection of the re-
mains of the largest mammals, specially
of their molars and vertebr@. These
are remarkable for their variety: very
huge, very many, and evidently of
many distinct species. We put this
against all solitary individuals as yet
discovered in or near the Arctic regions.
Besides those remains, which, from the
amount of silica in them have resisted
the action of time and acids, there are
phosphate masses in which these molars
are embedded. Probably the large
bones returned to their original source.
Then there are scattered about small
and large powders of the phosphate of
lime, indicating at greater depth a
mine of this mineral. "This shows
that these animals were not hoated into
this place by the action of sea currents.
but were here from the first, and found
in the alluvial plains around, and
meadows filled with dubious plants,
and an eXuberant flora, their original
habitat. Only region supplying plants
fed by heavy phosphate pabulum could
support creatures of such enormous
bone. As these several species multi
piled from singl pair, masses of their
remains would most probably indicate
the place of their origin" Nothing
can be clearer or more conclusive in its
way. But the bishop does not stop
here. The construction of the ark
shows plainly that it was designed for
speed and a long voyage. Its knees
and ribs would require such wood as
the llve-oak grown on the Carolina
coast hard by the sea. Large quaint
ties of pitch and tar would be required
to make it water-tight, both of which
Carolina could furnish at the time of
the flood as now. The word gopher
meaning pitch or pine, according to
Bishop keener, it is highly probable
that by it was meant distinctively the
wood of the Carolina long-leaf pine. As
Tor the drifting of the ark to Mount
Ararat, say S,5l5 miles distant, to fol-
low the computation of the bishop, the
course could be readily covered in the
$50 days during which the ark was at sea.
The Gulf Stream off the Carolina coast
would carry it in northerly direction
until it reached the fortieth paral-
lei, after which it would be borne due
east over the " submerged plateaus of
Spain" across the lower part of Greece,
steadily onward into Asia Minor until
it " struck Mount Ararat." Assuming
an average velocity for the Gulf Stream
OF two miles per hour, the rate off Cape
Hatteras, in 5000 hours, or $50 days,
the ark would certainly be within a
thousand miles of Ararat The Charles
ton papers of course endorse this in
genious theory, and the News and
Courier forcibly points out that as Caro-
lima is the modern Garden of Eden to-
day the burden of proof lies with those
who would show that another Eden
ever existed somewhere in Asia Minor
orat the north pole,-BostOn AdcertiSer